I have had a Fidelity 529 card issued by MBNA for several months. I have been buying bonds up to within $100 of my credit limit, then paying off the balance to get my available credit back to the original credit line. I have been doing this 2-3 times during the month, thus utilizing 2-3 times my credit line during the month. I did this for several months with no problems. In fact, before I even started doing this in the first month, I called MBNA and the CSR said that it was no problem. In November, I bought some bonds again up to near the CL and then paid it off. Shortly afterward a 0% balance transfer from First USA hit the account giving me a fairly large credit balance. I then bought some more bonds, enough to use up the credit balance plus an additional amount to take me to within $100 of my available credit. All of the bond purchases went through fine. I then made a payment to effectively bring my balance down to zero. This posted the next day. This should have taken my available credit back up to its original limit. But lo and behold MBNA then put a temporary hold on the balance transfer that came over from First USA. This was after I had made purhases against it and which had gone through. My available credit showed zero. I waited a few days, hoping the temporary hold would drop off. After it didn't, I called and talked to a CSR. She didn't seem to know what was going on and put me through to a credit analyst. The credit analyst told me that I had done two things in violation of the card agreement. 1) I am not allowed to make purchases in a month in excess of my credit limit. That is, if I make purchases up to my credit limit and then pay it off in the same month, I cannot make any additional purchases in that month. 2) I am not allowed to make prepayments to my cc to get additional purchasing power. Thus the balance transfer from First USA was improper since I did not have a balance at the time. I should mention that I had a fairly high credit line so I was making some fairly substantial purchases during some of these months. She said that because I had violated my card agreement, my account was being closed. I asked her if this meant that I was going to lose the rebates that I had earned (2%). She said that she would check into it, but I got the impression that I was going to lose the rebate which is substantial. After I got off the phone, I tried to find my card agreement but could not find it. Does anybody have a copy of the MBNA agreement for the Fidelity 529 card? It is a platinum plus card, I believe. I subsequently called the MBNA customer service line 5 different times and asked the 5 CSR's questions essentially asking them if it was okay to do what I had done (but not giving them my account number or name). Every single one of them said that it was okay. Any advice would be appreciated. Needless to say, this has practically ruined my holiday.
PFB or escalate it to the IVORY TOWER SINCE WHEN IS BUYING MORE THAN YOUR CREDIT LIMIT (WITH ADDITIONAL PAYMENTS) A CRIME???
Georgee - click on my name, and use the link to email me, so I can email you back with some info. I know someone who might be able to get you the docs you need, but can't put the name on the board.
Whatever this credit analyst said, must be very well explained in your card agreement. I have a card, which I keep by purpose at $1,000 LOC and I do the same all the time - spend some money, then load it online from my checking, then charge it again. The only restriction I've ever had was to use less than the LOC in one day (from 0:00AM to 12:00PM), which means I can spend $30,000 for the month ... as a matter of fact, I spent once about $8,500 on the same card in two weeks.